Language of Pain in Homeopathy

Pain is a complex human experience that varies according to person, place and time. In the ancient world, people believed that pain was a punishment from the gods, and every society had its own idea of what caused pain. Buddhists, blamed pain on the frustration of desire. Hindus associated pain with the heart, which they saw as the Centre of the nervous system, and the Chinese attributed it to an imbalance of the unifying forces, yin and yong. But the modern science describes pain as multidimensional, psychophysical, sociocultural and spiritual experience.

According to International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that may or may not be associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." It adds: "Pain is always subjective. Each individual learns the application of the word through experiences related to injury in early life. It is a sensation in a part or parts of the body, but it is always unpleasant and therefore also an emotional experience." This definition emphasizes the physical and psychological components of pain while underlining its subjective nature. Pain is a non-reproducible experience which, although intimate and non-transferable can be communicated to others.

Homeopathy plays an important role to give the relief in pain and also cure the underlying cause of the pain. The treatment must be on strict homeopathic principles. Each symptom must be taken in its complete component. For pain the things to be considered are:

• Location/ Site with its radiation if any
• Sensation/ Feeling
• Modality
• Concomitant
• Location: "Where is the pain?" The specific tissues, organs and areas of a pain, both as described by the person and their actual anatomical location relate to specific remedies. For example-
• Tissues:
  • Muscle Pain: Rhustox, Ruta, Gelsemium, Dulcamara, Actea Racimosa
  • Joint Pains: Bryonia, Rhustox, Formica rufa, Ledum, Bellis-per, Guaicum
  • Nerve Pains: Phytolacca, Hypericum, Spigelia, Arnica, Kalmia
  • Vascular Pains: Belladona, Glonine, Verat-vir, Baryta mur.
• Organs:
  • Liver: Chelidonium, Cardus mar, Kalmegh.
  • Spleen: Cheonanthus
  • Gallbladder: Chelidonium, Berbaris vulgaris Ceonanthus
  • Kidney: Berbaris vulgaris, Tabacum, Hydrangia, Hedioma
  • Heart: Cratagus, Cactus, Digitalis,
  • Lungs:Aspidospermum
• Area of Pain
  • Covered by finger tip- Kalibichrom
  • Circumscribed- Ignetia
  • Right lower end of scapula- Chelidonium
  • Left lower end of scapula- Chinopodium
  • Left kidney region- Berbaris
  • Right kidney region- Sarsaparilla

Sensation: This is the most important component of pain. A beginner may confuse to get the proper sensation and their respective rubric. It is too difficult to get because it depends on the narrator's experience, culture, language and knowledge. The doctor must confirm the exact sensation and match it with repertory because there are many confusing rubrics. Personally I use a table for the assessment of pain which I have made from the Macgill questionnaire.

Modalty: For each kind of pain, what are the things make it better or worse in terms of time, temperature, environment, position, motion, bodily activities, sensory input, physiological factors etc.. Use the following chart for checking the modality.

Concomitant : Do the patient have other symptoms, sensations, experiences that go along with the pain? Describe exactly where and when. Symptoms in other organs or parts of the body may be associated with the main complaint, occurring at the same time.

So in this way we see a homeopath must understand the pain in the language of homeopathy i.e. with its all component. He should always keep in mind that Pain is not only the criteria for choosing a remedy, totality of the symptom must be considered.